


Meaningless Life

by Kamary



Series: The Jersey Devil [9]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A few ocs show up but they are just there to set the scene, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Multi, Other, Suicide, Years Later, polymory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5266112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamary/pseuds/Kamary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time travel was funny like that. If you didn’t give proper information about the incident, then it would just repeat. And how could you tell? Nobody would ever believe you. Everyone outside of a few special cases was in active denial about your ability to die and come back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meaningless Life

**Author's Note:**

> Three essays to write? I think you mean write more fanfiction.

It was just a normal day at work for you. Things were slowly calming down. Extremists were being dealt with and your work load had finally lessened enough for you to actually take breaks. There was something like a wave of relief sweeping through the office the first time you reached the halfway point in the paperwork pile (you could never finish the pile, even during the good times. There was always more).

You took your lunch with two of your work friends. You didn’t talk to them too much outside of work (since work absorbed so much of your time), but you still enjoyed your time with them. There weren’t too many people here. Your workplace was unlike any other, even other ambassadors didn’t have work anything like yours. You were treated more like one of the leaders of monsterkind, which was rather strange given that you weren’t really a monster.

Bearington was one of the few monsters that actually worked in the political department. He had a gift for it. You remembered first speaking to him is Snowdin, and even back then, he had politics on the brain. Funnily enough, even though he considered running for mayor, he never ended up doing so. At the time, it was too difficult. He knew nothing of the human world and most people already needed on foot in the door.

Your other work friend was Terah, a human woman who specifically volunteered to work here, both as a challenge and because you needed a legal expert. She was good at her job, but a little lazy. More often than not, she hung out with Bearington rather than you. Having lunch all together was nicer, though.

“We really gotta get more monsters in politics.” Terah’s words were muffled by the bagel she was attempting to eat. “This place is swarming with humans, and it’s the Monster-Human Embassy. Not fair, I tell you.”

“Monsters aren’t really political creatures,” Bearington explained between bites of his own meal. “Unless you consider telling skeletons and fish ladies politics. Which, I guess you can.”

You nod along. “There’s not much we can do. Monsters live long lives, and most of themegrew up under a monarchy. All of the ones that came from the underground, at least. Maybe the next generation, though, will show more interest. I hope I can step out for a monster ambassador at some point. I feel weird talking for them while I’m human.”

“Yeah, the human married to the prince of all monsters,” Terah scoffed.

You blushed and tried to hide your face behind a bowl of salad. “I’m not married to him yet! We just happen to have the same last name…”

“That’s kind of confusing, but I guess since you were sort of adopted by the Dreemurrs, it makes sense. Still a little weird you’re dating him.” Bearington hummed, but didn’t really question it. It was acceptable enough.

You considered correcting the two of them, but remembered you couldn’t. Chara wasn’t exactly public. It was much easier if everyone thought you were just dating Asriel. Chara had told you, if the three of you ever got married, they’d go public then, but it wasn’t going to be for a while. Instead, you told everyone you were dating only Asriel, and Asriel had done the same for them. Dates with Chara were kind of confusing, but people generally accepted it as a friends’ outing.

“It’s not like we’re related,” you suggested with a shrug and tool another bite of your salad. “We just kinda fell for each other. I guess I have a thing for monsters. Who knew?”

This got a laugh from your two friend and you went back to snacking in silence. Your thing for monsters was a joke around here. Some even called you a monster on the inside. You accepted the nickname with pride.

You stopped eating when you heard someone make a pained sound. You jumped to your feet and rushed towards the source. The lunch room wasn’t far from the stairs, and without having to see it, you knew what was wrong. It wasn’t just a prediction either. This was not the first time this thing had happened.

Time travel was funny like that. If you didn’t give proper information about the incident, then it would just repeat. And how could you tell? Nobody would ever believe you. Everyone outside of a few special cases was in active denial about your ability to die and come back.

You arrived at the bottom of the stairs and found the intern, Marcus, lying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. Terah, who had followed you, went to his side and felt for his pulse. The sigh of relief she gave told you that he was probably fine. He was just out cold for a little while. Given there were pieces of paper laying everywhere, you think you knew why he fell. You’d told him before not to stack the files so high when using the stairs, but he never listened.

“Bearington,” Terah ordered. You guess he’d come with you too. “Can you call an ambulance? He needed to get treatment. I don’t know if he’s taken brain damage or something. Frisk can you- Frisk?”

You were already climbing the stairs. It was alright. Everything would be fine. You could fix this. There was one very big design flaw that nobody thought of when you constructed this building, and ever since, you’d been taking advantage of it. You could hear Terah calling for you, but you ignored her. Climbing up higher and higher, you reached the top of the stairs to the balcony.

You’d saved just before going to lunch, so you should be able to solve this quite easily. It was just a simple jump. You made your way to the balcony’s edge and climbed over. It was such a nice day out today. Not too stormy or windy. You were glad. You always forgot how long you lived after the fall, not long, but it felt like a while. By, maybe you wouldn’t today. You made sure to get rid of that bush that had always been causing you problems.

“I’ll be right back,” you said to no one and day yourself a tiny push. You fell off the ledge and twisted to look up at the sky. Even if you’d done this hundreds of times, looking at the ground while you did it made you extremely uncomfortable.

\---

“Marcus,” you began as you approached the boy. You’d told Bearington and Terah you couldn’t join them for lunch. You had to handle this first. “How many times have I told you about carrying so many files? What if one fell off the pile and you slipped on it? Come on, I’m help you with these.”

You took half the pile from the intern. He looked a little nervous, which was expected when you were an ambassador and he was just the intern that started a few weeks back. Getting help from you must have been embarrassing. Still, it was better than letting him got hurt. If a human got hurt here, that would be a big problem for everyone.

As you walked down the stairs, you felt your phone go off. You decided to ignore it for now. You’d get to it later.

\---

You decided to leave work early. You really weren’t feeling well. Using determination took a lot more out of you than it used to. Being around so many other humans muddled the feeling. Your determination was superior to theirs, but it was weakened by all of the other humans. You told Bearington to take over the last of your work for the evening and went home. You hated to do that, but you were the boss.

It wasn’t a long drive home. When you got home, you noticed that Asriel’s car was there as well. Strange. He wasn’t supposed to get off work until later. He must have gotten sick as well. Or maybe something was wrong with Chara. You remember with a start that you never checked your phone. Guilt was eating away at you now, and you moved as quickly as you could to the door.

It was unlocked. That was funny. Normally it was always locked. Chara didn’t like the idea people could just walk into your home. The uneasy feeling in your gut grew even larger.

You were relieved, when you stepped inside, to see Asriel and Chara sitting on the couch, looking at the door expectantly. Maybe they told you to come home? You hoped that was the case. You were worried about that.

“Thank goodness you’re alright…” you muttered.

Of course they heard you. You weren’t very good at whispering. Asriel gave you a harsh look and Chara went to hold their hand to stop them (that was kind of backwards. Wasn’t it normally Chara getting upset and Asriel calming them down? You felt uneasy.)

“Of course we’re alright,” Asriel said in a tone harsher than you hard heard him use since the two of you were children. It reminded you too much of the God of Hyperdeath. “The only one here that isn’t okay is you.”

You scrunched up your brows and went to ask, but were interrupted by Chara. “Just come sit down. We need to have a talk. And sit a bit away from Asriel. He’s going to tackle you if you get too close. He takes this real personal, Frisk.”

You were even more confused, but did what you were told to do. You shifted uncomfortably in your seat before settling down properly. You looked to Asriel and then Chara with an extremely confused expression.

“What did I do?” you inquired in a soft tone. It must have been something terrible.

“Did you forget?” Asriel asks, in a voice like acid. “Everytime you reload, we can tell. We can feel it too. I was hoping that it was just a big incident, but there was no news about anything. And you weren’t answering our texts or calls! You always call us right away when somebody kills you! What the hell is wrong with you?”

The words feel like a slap in the face. You’d forgotten they could feel it too. You hadn’t died by a while. It was stupid of you to forget (you don’t know how you did, just that the more than you reloaded, the more than your memories got confused), but you had. Worst of all was that you forgot to text or call. You should always be watching your phone. What if someone happened at school? What if something happened to Chara?

“I-I… One of my co-workers got hurt and…” You shook a little.

“And so you didn’t answer your phone? How badly hurt were they? Was it fatal?” Asriel’s piercing glare made you want to hide. You wished you could bury yourself in his chest and feel better, but right not he was the threat.

“Asriel…” Chara’s tone was hushed. They squeezed Asriel’s arm, causing him to exhale and calm down a little.

“It wasn’t fatal.” You couldn’t even lie and say it was. “He just hit his head falling down the stairs. I was worried he might have gotten brain damage.”

Chara shook their head. “Monster food can fix that easy. What about you? What if you didn’t come back? What if your determination ran dry? Did you ever consider that?”

You looked away from them for a moment. “It wouldn’t…”

“Yes, it can. Remember what Asriel told you, us, in the fight against him all those years ago? Everytime you reload, you get a little weaker, people forget about you a little. It’s not a riskless thing. You can’t keep doing it infinitely.” Chara takes a breath. “We care about you, so believe us when we say you need to stop.”

You shook your head. “I can’t…”

Asriel let out a growling noise. “Do you not want to stay with us? Because if you really want this relationship to end…!”

Chara slapped a hand over his mouth. You covered, your eyes wide and horrified. No, no, no no no no! They couldn’t leave you. You couldn’t be alone! You went to scramble for the reset button, but Chara stopped you.

“We would never leave,” they responded in a calm voice, calmer than you remember then ever using before. “I promise. We’re never going to leave, but you need to take care of yourself. Asriel didn’t mean it. He’s just scared for you. What would we were do without you?”

You looked down, your fears not quite alleviated, but calmed for the time being. You noted Chara squeezing Asriel’s snout punishingly before releasing it. It looked kind of painful.

“I can’t stop… What does my life matter if I can just come back?” you muttered. “If I can save everyone…”

“You need to let some things go, Frisk.” Why was Chara the calm one today? Part of you wonders if it’s because they remembered the feeling of wanting to be of use to someone else through death. Or maybe it is because of the fact they know how deep your fear of being abandoned goes. “You can’t save everyone. You just have to keep living, you can’t waste your reloads like this.”

You pull your legs close to your chest and let out a low whine. You hear the sound of someone getting up and you’re wrapped in a big bear hug.

“Together forever, remember?” Chara whispers to you, and you nod. You’re soon joined by another, larger presence and wrapped up in a larger hug which manages to even encompass Chara.

“Sorry I snapped,” Asriel mumbles. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t…” you respond. “I’m sorry. I just… I don’t feel like anything anymore. I feel like I have to try to save everyone. What kind of ambassador would I be if I kept letting my co-workers get hurt?”

Asriel sighed. “I think you should take some time off work. I think the pressures are starting to get to you.”

You shake your heads. You’re the ambassador, you can’t just leave. However, you know you need the time. The way they reacted, they were so scared of losing you. You hadn’t realized how bad this issue had been getting.

“Please?” Chara asks, and it’s special because Chara doesn’t say please.

You give a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”


End file.
